Airdrop season is in full swing across the entire crypto ecosystem, but there is one project I’m targeting above all others. In this post, I explain why I am targeting this upcoming airdrop opportunity for a project I expect to be a household name in the market for many years.
Key Takeaways
- EigenLayer is a project that should airdrop a token in 2024. When it does, I expect it to instantly land in the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap.
- On December 18, the core team is increasing EigenLayer’s deposit limits for the first time in a few months.
- Before then, I will be minting swETH by depositing ETH into Swell. I will then deposit this swETH into EigenLayer after waiting a few hours for gas prices to decline.
Contents
Context on EigenLayer
As many of you know, EigenLayer has been one of my most highly anticipated projects for a while. In the depths of the bear market in Oct. 2022, I listed EigenLayer as one of the projects that was keeping me interested in crypto. It is no coincidence that EigenLayer has been the first project covered in each of our quarterly updates on tokenless projects we’re closely tracking. (See our coverage of EigenLayer in April, July and October.)
We’ve also had EigenLayer as a five-star opportunity on our Airdrops page, and I’ve personally had it in my top action items for members to consider. Watch the video below from April for more on EigenLayer.
My Overall Airdrop Strategy
My approach to qualifying for airdrops is to target the projects that I believe will enter the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap—once they tokenise, of course.
I’m not someone who will intricately plan an airdrop strategy for dozens of tokenless protocols and apps. While this can prove lucrative, there are many risks and considerations that have shaped my decision to be more selective with the tokenless projects I target.
When it comes to EigenLayer, this is a project I strongly believe will land in the top 100 cryptocurrencies on the day its token goes live. And it wouldn’t surprise me to see it cement a position in the top 50. Suffice it to say, I think qualifying for an airdrop from EigenLayer is a worthy pursuit! So let’s get into the opportunity.
The Opportunity: EigenLayer Accepting More Deposits on Dec. 18
EigenLayer has been gradually accepting more deposits of liquid-staking tokens (LSTs) throughout 2023. It launched on mainnet earlier in the year with a very small cap. Since then, it has increased the caps two times. On both occasions, the caps have been hit in roughly 24 hours.
It’s been a few months since you could deposit LSTs to EigenLayer, but this will change at 10am PT (6pm UTC) on December 18.
Last week, the team announced that it was increasing the caps for the three supported LSTs (i.e. stETH, rETH and cbETH) and adding support for the following six LSTs: wBETH (Binance), osETH (StakeWise), swETH (Swell), ankrETH (Ankr), ETHx (Stader) and oETH (Origin ETH).
Currently, there are 113,183 ETH deposited in EigenLayer. As of Dec. 18, this overall cap will become roughly 500,000 ETH. Each supported LST will have a cap of 200,000 tokens.
What I’ll Be Doing
Before these caps are raised, I’ll be staking some ETH with Swell and getting back swETH. I am choosing Swell because they currently have a points system and may tokenise in the future. Swell is taking advantage of this EigenLayer cap increase and temporarily offering bonus points to those who mint swETH and deposit swETH on EigenLayer. (More info here.)
Tip: Do not rush once the restaking caps are increased. Gas prices will likely soar after the cap increase goes live. I’m talking transaction fees of $100–$300 worth of ETH. Most of this demand will be from people who fear not getting in—perhaps because they’ve heard the past EigenLayer deposit windows were short-lived. Little will these people realise that this upcoming increase is significantly larger than the previous ones. I plan to wait for gas prices to cool before depositing my swETH. (To be honest, you could very likely get away with depositing one or two days after these cap increases go live. But I won’t be waiting.)
For anyone more experienced, you may want to check out Kelp DAO’s early queue offering. Once EigenLayer’s cap increase goes live, Kelp DAO will automatically deposit your rsETH into EigenLayer. This option will also let you get dual rewards, like Swell.
(Bonus info: Once the EigenLayer token goes live, it is highly likely that restakers will get ample opportunity for airdrops from projects building on EigenDA, the first of many solutions that will leverage the EigenLayer protocol. This is basically the same opportunity available to those staking their TIA on Celestia, which I am currently doing.)